Thank you Kalamazoo College and community members for joining us for our Passover Seder that falls on Earth Day. We want to today take the opportunity to draw parallels between the liberation of Jews in Egypt and the freedom of our planet from humanity’s effects on the land and the natural world we surround ourselves in.

Passover is a week-long holiday that commemorates the Israelite's exodus, or freedom, from slavery in Egypt in the 13th century BCE. People who observe this holiday are said to 'keep Passover', meaning they do not eat or drink foods made from grains, such as wheat, that have been allowed to rise. Passover is celebrated primarily with a festive meal called a seder in which the Haggadah is recited to tell the story of the exodus.

We will use this Haggadah to remind ourselves of the Jewish tradition that teaches us to care for all living things, including the earth and our neighbors. We also need to remind ourselves to think of the future, as we do each year in remembering the Exodus and by teaching this story to new generations. Each of us has a personal responsibility to understand what the future holds if we don’t consider what we’re damaging now.

As a note, a very important Passover seder tradition is giving thanks to God, and we invite you to think of it this way. If you would prefer, you can instead give thanks to mother earth or yourself to spark creation.


haggadah Section: Introduction